The problem is that most people don't write content as symbolic
representation - we get used to writing, or speech, or film, or whatever
medium we use. Often, it is much easier to understand what is needed by doing
it in a few media (i.e. providing alternative versions) than being told to
find a symbolic underlying system, as you have noted.
But that is really the essence of "seperate cntent from presentation". We
should say it like that, so people have the chance to understand how it works
together. But we should also, in a succinct set of guidelines, express it
more concretely (which is most of what we do - the rest is working out what
needs to be there in a concrete form).
cheers
Charles McCN
On Mon, 17 Jul 2000, Jason White wrote:
What appears to be essential is a set of lexical elements, and a grammar.
Thus, one could write a guideline which says:
"Where possible, content should be stored using a symbolic representation
(E.G. as text or in an abstract notation), rather than in a purely
prsentational form, such as a bitmap or vector diagram, or a sound file,
etc. The presentation should be derivable from this symbolic basis."
However, this would probably be confusing at best and misleading at worst,
without substantial clarification and explanation, which would in turn
defeat the purpose of writing succinct guidelines.
--
Charles McCathieNevile mailto:charles@w3.org phone: +61 (0) 409 134 136
W3C Web Accessibility Initiative http://www.w3.org/WAI
Location: I-cubed, 110 Victoria Street, Carlton VIC 3053
Postal: GPO Box 2476V, Melbourne 3001, Australia